BiographyI was born in 1974, and I currently live and work in Kariya, Japan. I’ve enjoyed drawing ever since I was young. Back then, that was how I expressed myself. However, in school, I studied subjects that were completely unrelated to art. After graduating from junior college, I worked as a company clerk. In 2000, I got married, and over the next several years, I gave birth to three daughters. This inspired me to start taking photographs. In 2015, I began to focus more on the artistic aspects of photography. Since then, I have been displaying my work worldwide.

Artist statement

Currently, I am trying to express my internal world - such as my past experiences or the thoughts that have forged my identity - through photographs. This is a self-healing process. It's as if I am picking up the pieces of my memory and putting them together like a puzzle.

In this series, I am photographing my eldest daughter who is turning 13. She lives a good life, lacking in nothing, and I see her growing daily, mentally and physically, from her gestures, words, and attitudes.

Looking back, I also went through a similar phase in my life. However I remember myself being rather awkward, and do not have much good memories from that time. At school I clashed with my classmates, and constantly stood up against my teachers. At home I rebelled against the words of my parents, although thinking back, it probably came from my anxieties about the future. Although I was troubled about my life choices or friends, I thought that I would get through on my own, without consulting anyone.

Many years have passed since then. I became an adult not knowing when, and although I did shed the shell in which I’d shut myself inside, I married and conceived my daughter, all the while keeping the small and weak chrysalis from the past within my heart. I gave birth to a new life without ever having the conviction of having turned into a butterfly.

Facing my daughter now who is growing up to be an adult, I cannot but think about what a beautiful season 13 is. I am constantly in simply awe-struck by the beauty of her change. Did I also once possess such unsoiled, beautiful body? Is that small gesture of rebellion when she pouts towards the camera, same as what I once directed towards my mother?

Photographing this series had an additional effect for me where I was able to take a second look at myself while projecting myself on my daughter. By repeatedly incorporating a memorable motif of butterflies into my works, I was given the chance to look in comparison at myself, small and weak, with my daughter, radiant and flying as lightly as a butterfly. In the end, I was able to realize that I too, once had a time when I shed my horribly feeble self and became a woman, as my daughter is doing now.

This was the town I was born in, and it’s where I lived for the first 26 years of my life. It was a small seaside town with fields spreading across the landscape, but there was nothing particularly distinctive about it. Back then, I didn’t have any special feelings for the town. It was just a place to carry out my daily activities, repeatedly and aimlessly.It has been 17 years since I left this town. When I went back to visit for the first time in a long time, the town, which used to have nothing, had changed. Paths had appeared out of nowhere. New roads and houses had been built, and many people had moved there. I was a little surprised. I had never expected this town to change. However, I noticed that a certain element of stillness remained. The town, in a sense, was just the way it used to be. I realized then that, in fact, I had cultivated a variety of things from these fields, and this town, of “nothing."In my current life, I no longer see things the way I used to. Now, I am seeking subconsciously what I left behind in this small town—a town I had once lived in and taken for granted.

I am trying to express my internal world - such as my past experiences or the thoughts that have forged my identity - through photographs. This is a self-healing process. It's as if I am picking up the pieces of my memory and putting them together like a puzzle.

Summer at the age of 12 (2016) 12歳の夏

My oldest daughter AKANE is in the summer at the age of 12. The age of 12 is just before adolescence as well as the last year of preteen. It is a short period of time that a girl transitions from a child to an adult both physically and mentally. This is the most beautiful, delicate and precious period.

It is very important for me to save her ephemerally beautiful period that passes away like a wind. This is because she is not aware of being in such a beautiful transition, just like I was not. As often is the case, it is only much later that we realize how important a thing was. I see myself at the time in her, and take a shot of the girlhood I lost. The shining life of the age that goes through physical and mental changes is really dazzling. Her summer at the age of 12 is a short-lived glow.

I have three daughters. They are so special to me. Also I think “Children” like them is a hope and a future in this world. Therefore, I thought I want to take photos of their lively figures as my works because they are the most beautiful existence for me.

Shooting locations are not special. In my house, a park near my house, recreation facilities, seaside, and so on. There are various kinds. I want to take photos all expressions of subtleties that they show in their childhood as many as possible. So I always think that lively and silently movements of children are also one of the parts of beautiful sights, when I take photos.

The reason of why I developed these my works in black and white, I hoped that the viewers who see my works feel free to draw various colors in their minds. So, I hope that their colors in their mind will be so rich, brilliant, and beautiful.

In my this series, even if the world becomes full of difficulties, I want to convince that peaceful beautiful world can be consisted by returning to childhood that everyone had as there were hopes and dreams to the future without a fear.